Indoor cricket star lives World Cup dream

Six years after first being selected to represent his country at the Over 40s Indoor Cricket World Cup, John Trela has finally fulfilled his dream.

At 49, Trela was the oldest member of the Australian team which beat host nation South Africa 96-67 to claim the World Cup in South Africa last month.

First selected ahead of the 2007 World Cup in New Zealand, a hernia forced Trela to pull out of the tournament the day before it was scheduled to start.

There was no such bad luck this time around, the Bunbury cricket veteran taking part in six of Australia’s 12 games and contributing 13 wickets along the way.

“It still feels a bit surreal at the moment,” Trela said.

“You always play any sport to enjoy it but of course you want to play it at the highest level possible.

“Being selected to represent Australia is a huge honour and then to actually go away and compete against probably the best players in the world is unreal.

“To set targets or goals individually and as a collective group and to achieve a World Cup is probably the pinnacle of any sport you play.”

Australia was narrowly beaten in two practice matches before the tournament started but was unstoppable once the games were for keeps.

“We played a couple of scratch matches against two very strong South African teams comprised of Open and State 35s players, they were major league teams,” Trela said.

“We lost both of those games going down to the last over and to be honest I think it was a bit of a ploy from the South Africans to see where we were at and knock our confidence around.

“I suppose it was a good learning platform for us because we were able to work through some team structures and combinations and work out a game plan.

“When we look back now, it was the best thing that could have happened because we set our game plan up, we got the cobwebs out and were able to front up on the opening morning of the tournament.”

With the next World Cup three years away, Trela is realistic about his chances of representing Australia in the Over 40s competition again, but hopes his time in thegreen and gold is not over.

“I’ll be 52 at that stage so I think if I was selected again it would probably be for another age group,” he said.

“The level of competition was so high and the achievements were so great that it drives you to succeed and I plan to put my hand up again when the time comes.”